
///-^ 



PROTESTANTISM, 



PARENT x\ND GUARDIAN 



CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 
A LECTURE, 

DELIVEKED, MARCH 26, 1843, 

UNDER APPOINTMENT OF THE N. Y. PROTESTANT REFORMATION SOCIETY. 

BY 

REV. JOHN N. McLEOB, A.M. 

PAtiTOR OF THE REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CUURCH, NEW YORK. 



ROBERT CARTER, 58 CANAL STREET 

R. Craighead, Printer, 112 Fulton Street. 

1843. 



REV. SAMUEL B. WYLIE, D.D. 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST REFORMED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA, 

AND 

VICE PROVOST OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, 

Who, by his varied labors as a 

PROFESSOR or THEOLOGY, A CHRISTIAN PASTOR, AND AN EXPOSITOR OF SCRIPTURE PROPHECY, 

Has contributed largely to promote 
THE CAUSE OF SOUND PROTESTANTISM IN OUR COUNTRY, 

El^is 2Lectutc 

IS MOST RESPECTFULLY AND AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED. 



,M3 



A LECTURE. 



"And I saw another Angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the 
everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to 
every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people. — And there followed 
another angel saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen." — Rev. xiv., 6, 8. 

Ox\ the nineteenth day of April, fifteen hundred and thirty- 
nine, an august assembly met in solemn deliberation in the city 
of Spires in Germany. It was composed of princes of the 
Germanic empire, and commissioners from its imperial cities. 
Its presiding officer was the brother, and representative of the 
Emperor Charles the Fifth; and there was present, also, a special 
legate of the reigning Pope, who took a prominent part in its 
proceedings. 

The great subject under consideration was the reform in reli- 
gion, which Luther and his coadjutors had been attempting for 
a few years past, and which now began to command universal 
attention. 

The friends of reform who were members of the Assembly 
asked simply for toleration to the Reformers, in the maintenance 



and expression of their conscientious opinions. The servants of 
Rome demanded their punishment as heretics and rebels ; and 
the mere pohticians, of whom there were several in the body, 
talked, and temporized, and sought postponement, until they 
should be able to determine whether their own selfish ends would 
be better answered, by a countenance of the new^ or adherence 
to the old religion. At another meeting of this same assembly 
held a few years before, an act of toleration had been obtained 
in favor of Luther and his fellow Reformers. By this they had 
been delivered from the fear of immediate persecution, and were 
allowed to practise their religion in comparative safety. But the 
influence of Rome prevailed, as it has often done, before and 
since, over unprincipled politicians, and the proposition which is 
now before the assembly is, to revoke the act of the previous 
diet, and thus leave the Reformers to the penalties which the 
Pope had already denounced against them. 

On the day before mentioned {the nineteenth of Aprils 1639) 
the act of toleration was revoked by a plurality of votes, and 
in its place another deliberately framed, of which the substance 
is as follows : that there should be no innovation in the established 
religion ; no permission to abstain from the celebration of mass, 
or other ceremonies of the Roman Catholic w^orship ; no public 
preaching against the doctrine and practice of the church; 
no publication through the medium of the press, in any way 
opposing the popish faith. 

Against these iniquitous decrees, which were designed to nip 
the Reformation in the bud, six princes of the empire, and four- 
teen representatives of imperial cities entered their solemn 
Protest, and from this arose the name Protestant — a name 



which shoultl be for ever dear to the Church of God, and the 
friends of human freedom, throughout the world. 

There were indeed protesters against the corruptions and 
tyranny of Rome from the earhest ages. For every generation 
had its witnesses for God, and often had they sealed with their 
blood the testimony which they held. Let the Vaudois, the 
Albigenses, the Lollards, and the many distinguished individuals 
whose name and deeds are emblazoned, w^ith letters of light, on 
the pages of the church's history, be held in everlasting remem- 
brance ! They kept the light of the true religion, which they 
had received from the primitive Christian Church, burning 
amidst the darkness of papal night, and at it the Protestant 
Reformers of the 16th century kindled their lamp. But while 
this admission is cordially made, it is still true that the name 
Protestant, as a formal designation of the opponents of Anti- 
Christ, had its origin in the historical fact to which we have just 
referred. And although it has been often treated as of little 
importance, it was undoubtedly of much consequence, as an 
element in the great moral revolution which was now commenc- 
ing. Like the protests of the American colonies against the 
usurpations of the mother coimtry, which prepared the way for 
the " Declaration of Independence" — the Protest of the German 
princes and deputies at the diet of Spires, contributed much to 
prepare the public mind for the final rejection of the papacy, by 
the Church of God, and her own independent re-organization on 
the Apostolic platform. 

Liberty of conscience, of speech, and of the press, was the 
comprehensive claim of the Reformers, from the court of Rome. 



Their claim was deniedj they entered their protest ; and under its 
broad shield went forward to emancipate the nations. 

The principles exhibited in the claim of the Reformers, and 
whose refusal by the papacy made them Protestants, are now 
regarded as axiomatic, and undeniable by all but Romanists 
themselves. But they involved heresy and rebellion against 
established authority when first promulgated ; and to give them 
the hold which they now have on the mind and heart of Christen- 
dom, cost years of painful effort, and the suffering, and bloody 
death of many thousands. 

The anti-christian system claimed infallibility, and of course 
admitted no reform ; and such was the connection of the eccle- 
siastical and civil powers in that system, and the subserviency of 
the latter to the former, that to dissent from the Church was 
treason to the state. Against this vast and impious compound 
of irreligion and tyranny, the Reformers protested, at the peril of 
their lives. We, their posterity, are enjoying the blessed fruits 
of the tree which they planted, and it were ingratitude for us 
to forget their principles, or the price of blood which it cost to 
maintain them. 

The question, therefore, which we now submit to your consi- 
deration is, 

What is Protestantism ? 

We bear the name of Protestants, and it behooves us to under- 
stand its import. To the inquiry What is Protestantism ? we 
shall now attempt a reply, by presenting four of its characteristic 
principles. 

I. It is a principle of Protestantism, that reform in the institu- 



tions and arrangements of society, both religious and civil, may 
be sought and effected in the use of the proper means. 

The eternal Son of God in human nature is the only Mediator 
between God and man; and the Scriptures exhibit him as 
sustaining in that capacity a twofold relation to the universe. He 
is, first, the Head of the Church which is his body, and second, 
the Head over all other persons and things for her benefit. 

As the Head of the Church, he is the fountain from which 
emanates all that is purely religious. And in this capacity he 
prescribes for man his faith, institutes the ordinances of his 
worship, and directs his obedience as an immortal sinful being, 
seeking the salvation of his soul. 

But he is also the " Governor among the nations," and as 
such he claims the right of directing man, as a citizen of this 
lower world, in all his civil and political relations. So that the 
mediatorial government extends itself over the entire personal 
character and social relations of the human being. 

The grand comprehensive charge, then, which as Protestants 
we bring against the papal system, is, that it is a profane usurpa- 
tion of the mediatorial prerogatives. And in this consists its 
anti-christianism. The Roman pontiffs claim the Headship of 
the Church, and of all other persons and things on earth ; and in 
this they appear as the embodied reality of that prophetic deline- 
ation of the " Man of Sin," which is given by the Apostle Paul, 
when he says, " He opposeth and exalteth himself above all 
that is called God, or that is worshipped ; so that he, as God, 
sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God." — 
2 Thess. ii., 4. 

Thus it is that they have always declared themselves the 



Sovereigns of the world, and assumed the power of elevating 
and degrading kings and emperors ; of working miracles ; dis- 
pensing indulgence for crime ; forgiving sin, and opening and 
shutting heaven at their pleasure. Hear their own language on 
this subject — " We, therefore," says Pope Boniface the Eighth, in 
his famous bull called " unam sanctam," " we therefore declare, 
say, define, and pronounce it to be necessary to salvation, that 
every human creature should be obedient to the Roman pontiff! ! " 

But the Head of the Roman Catholic Church is not satisfied 
with the assumption of universal sovereignty, he claims also 
infallibility in its exercise. 

It is true that endless disputation has existed among the 
Romanists, as to the precise locality of the infallible power. But 
that it does exist somewhere in the system, is a universally re- 
ceived dogma. Their great standard writer Bellarmine, and 
the Jesuits as a body, place it in the hands of the Pope himself. 
The language of Bellarmine is, " the Pope cannot possibly err," 
and he adds, " if the Pope could err, by enjoining vices or pro- 
hibiting virtues, the Church would be bound to believe that vices 
were virtues, and virtues vices, unless she chose to sin against 
her conscience." And again, in the year 1625, when the Pro- 
testant reformation was just commencing, an assembly of car- 
dinals and prelates, in France, made the following declaration : 
" His Holiness the Pope is above all calumny, and his faith out 
of the reach of error." 

Combine this twofold claim of unlimited sovereignty over all 
persons and things, and of infallibility in its exercise, and w^e 
have the monstrous assumption of entire control over the liberty 
of man, in soul, body, and estate. An unalterable despotism 



which there is no power to reform presents itself, and men are 
forbidden to say or to think that it is capable of improvement. 
Universal submission to this assumption presents the spectacle 
of a world in chains. And this was the actual condition of 
things when the Reformation commenced. " All maintained," 
says Myconius, a distinguished writer of that period, "that 
the Pope, being in the place of God, could not err, and there 
was none to contradict them." " All the world wondered 
after the Beast." — Rev. xiii., 3, 4. And what was the personal 
and public character of this infallible head of an unalterable 
system ? He was often ignorant, profligate, and impious in the 
very extreme. Take, as an example, the character of Alexander 
the Sixth, who was the reigning Pope in the age immedi- 
ately preceding the Reformation. When the papal chair was 
vacated by the death of his predecessor, he w^as residing at 
Rome; and although he was an Archbishop, he was living 
in ilhcit uitercourse with two females, the mother and daughter, 
at the same time. He obtained the papal throne by paying a 
stipulated sum in silver, to the cardinals who had the right of 
election. And soon after his elevation he ordered the marriage 
of one of his own daughters to be celebrated in the Vatican 
itself. His mistress was openly present, and the main amuse- 
ments of the evening were the singing of licentious songs, and 
the acting of plays which ridiculed and travestied the most sacred 
subjects of scripture history ! He distributed the dignities of the 
Church to his profligate favorites, or sold them for money. 
When it suited his purpose, he procured the murder of his ene- 
mies by the hand of the assassin, and finally ended his career of 
wickedness by unv^ttingly partaking of poison, which he had 
2 



10 

directed to be prepared for another who was an invited guest at 
his table.* And if such was the character of the Head of the 
apostacy, profanely styled " His Holiness," it is not surprising 
that a general profligacy of manners should pervade all ranks. 
In Rome pagan, amidst all its abominable idolatries, nothing 
worse than what now presents itself in Rome papal, had ever 
appeared. At the beginning of the 16th century, the morals of 
the world were infamous. 

And if such were the morals of Rome, what must have been 
its religion ? It was a vain and deceptive substitute for the faith 
of Jesus Christ. The service of the Creator was forgotten in the 
idolatrous homage bestowed on the creature. The glory of the 
only Mediator was taken from him, to be given to saints, and 
angels, and pictures, and relics of dead men and things. The 
office of the Holy Spirit was virtually superseded by the penances, 
confessions, and payments of money which were made to secure 
the pardon of sin and purchase the favor of heaven ; and that 
faith which sees Him that is invisible, which elevates the mind 
above worldly influences, and which manifests itself in regard for 
the truth, in humility of heart, in love to the brethren, and in all 
the other acts and exercises of unostentatious piety, had almost 
fled the earth. 

It is true that God had some of his elect, even in the camp of 
the enemy. A people to come out of the mystical Babylon, 
when the voice should be heard proclaiming her approaching 
judgments. But they were like the spark amidst the ashes ; 
not sufficient to warm, and enliven the mass itself, but enough, 

• D'Aubigne's History, vol. i., pp. 52-55. 



11 

when separated from it, to kindle a lamp that would enlighten 
the world. Even upon the bosom of the ocean of anti-christian 
delusion and impiety in which a world was drowning, there was 
an ark floating, which contained a family, preserved in the mercy 
of God, and which would renovate the earth with a holy 
population. 

The object which we have in view, in making this passing 
reference to the moral condition of the w^orld at the commence- 
ment of the Reformation, is to show how much it needed reform, 
and at the same time display the mighty influence which opposed 
any attempts at its improvement. An infallible system, no 
matter how corrupt, admits of no reform, and therefore the first 
efforts of those who opposed the Papacy were necessarily em- 
ployed in establishing their right to attempt, or even desire 
reform. To seek the improvement of everything that we con- 
sider wrong in Church or State, in the use of the proper means, 
we, in this Protestant country, feel to be our inalienable right. 
But such right was denied by the Church of Rome to our Pro- 
testant forefathers, and if we have it, it was purchased by their 
blood. 

Reform was the grand watch-word of the Protestants, both 
before and after they adopted the name. At first, it w^as the 
scandalous lives of the clergy they sought to improve ; and next, 
some of the more palpable and enormous of the existing corrup- 
tions in faith and practice, like the doctrine and sale of indulgences. 
But as they proceeded in their investigations, they found that the 
entire Popish system was rotten to the core; that it was 
essentially anti-christian, and therefore to be expelled as a 
disease, and banished as an enemy from the Church of Christ. 



12 

Thus, the grand moral revolution of the 16th century soon 
assumed the form, not merely of a movement of a few scattered 
individuals to correct abuses in a system which they regarded as 
radically good, but of the Church of God on earth, re-forming 
herself on the basis of her own apostolic and divine constitu- 
tion. 

The time was come when God required Reformers, not for 
the Papacy, for that is incapable of reform, but for the Church 
which it had corrupted, and the world it had enslaved. And 
He found them in the cells of the monasteries, the retirements 
of the moimtains, and the high places of power. 

Animated by influences from on high, the Reformers claimed 
the right, as members of organized society, to seek and 
obtain reform, in the use of the proper means. Antichrist 
denied the right, asserted his infallibility, and drew the sword 
to slay. The Protestants resisted. Their weapons were the 
tongue, the pen, and the press, which, about a century before, 
God had given to the world, for what purpose begins now to 
be more and more apparent. . They were successful ; and the 
right of men to reform themselves and others was at last 
established, though it cost the martyrdom of thousands. 

The whole history of the Protestant world is proof of the 
existence of this right, and the value of its exercise. And we 
find it incorporated, either in express terms or by implication, in 
all forms of social organization. 

No department of the Christian Church, no properly organ- 
ized civil society, no voluntary association formed on Protestant 
principles, claims infallibility. The creeds of the several religious 
denominations admit imperfection and susceptibility of improve- 



13 

ment ; and it is the acknowledged right of every individual 
member in his appropriate place, and in the use of the means 
authorized by the gospel, to prosecute reform wherever he sees 
anything amiss. 

And as it is in the Church, so also is it in the State. The 
institutions of our own Republic, whose foundations are laid on 
Protestant principles, take for granted the right of the citizen to 
seek reform, wherever he feels that it is required. 

" Congress" (says the first amendment to the Federal Con- 
stitution) " shall make no law respecting an establishment of 
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging 
the freedom of speech or of the press ; or the right of the people 
peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a 
redress of grievances." 

Contrast this with the decree of the diet of Spires, which 
produced the protest of the German Reformers, and it will be 
found expressly guaranteeing the identical rights which are 
refused to the Protestants in that enactment. An undeniable 
evidence that our country is Protestant in its origin and principles 
of government ; and through the blessing of God, who reforms 
where he designs to save, it shall never change its character. 

The right of reform includes the right of petition for the 
redress of personal grievances, and the correction of social evils, 
and they stand or fall together. Popery has always denied the 
right of the people to ask and obtain reform. When thousands 
of the friends of the true religion proclaimed her corruptions 
from age to age, she silenced them with brute force. When 
they pointed out to her the scandalous immoralities of her clergy, 
she punished them, as slanderers, with the sword. And when 



14 

they sought permission to live and act for themselves according 
to the word of God, she handed them over to the tender mercies 
of the infernal inquisition. And such is ever the spirit of Po- 
pery. How can infallibility be improved, or disobedience to 
" our Lord God the Pope" for a moment tolerated ? It never 
is, where the physical power to enforce the claim is possessed. 

In Protestant countries, it is true, the great aim of Popery is 
change. But it is such change as would conform everything to 
the model of its own unalterable despotism. 

Popery degrades the rational being into a mere machine, to 
be moved as the infallible power directs. It renders man irre- 
sponsible and selfish. But Protestantism gives him his liberty, 
instructs him in his rights, puts in his hand the instrument of re- 
form, and tells him to use it, when necessary, for the benefit of 
himself and others. It causes him to feel that he is a unit in 
the social system to which he belongs, and that he is bound to 
watch its operation, that he may guard what is right and seek 
the improvement of what is wrong. Thus is man elevated and 
ennobled. The right to reform may be abused by imperfect men 
into an inordinate passion for change ; but under its proper 
restrictions, it is one of the grand safeguards of civil and reli- 
gious liberty. 

A purer atmosphere and a healthier population is found be- 
side the ever-changing ocean, than that which surrounds the 
stagnant lake. 

Protestantism, which is only another name for Christianity itself, 
instructs men that there is no perfection here, either in personal cha- 
racter or social institutions, and points them to a course of unlim- 
ited improvement. The true Protestant is an intelligent reformer. ^ 



15 

II. A second characteristic principle of Protestantism is that 
the Bible is the si(fficient and only ultimate rule of faith and 
manners, and that it is the right and duty of all men to exam- 
ine it for themselves. 

The grand object which Protestantism seeks is the reformation 
of the world. The means of effecting it, is the Bible in the 
hands of the entire population. 

To conceal and mystify is a characteristic of Popery. To 
explain and understand everything which is capable of expla- 
nation, is the aim of Protestantism. And there is nothing which 
more distinctly evinces the anti-christian character of the Romish 
system, than the treatment it has always given to the oracles of 
God. From the day that God gave the first promise to man in 
Eden until the Apocalypse was bestowed to complete the canon 
of Scripture, he was revealing his will to the world. And 
when the revelation was completed, it was placed as the sim in 
the moral heavens to give light to all. " Search the scriptures, 
because in them ye think ye have eternal life, and these are they 
that testify of me," is the comprehensive instruction of the 
author of the Bible, John v., 39. And it is a fact in history 
pregnant with condemnation of the Papacy, that in proportion 
as true religion flourished in the first ages of Christianity, the 
Bible was free. 

God directed the Church to set the candle of his most holy 
word upon a candlestick, " that it might enlighten every man that 
cometh into the house." A power arises with sufficient audacity 
to cover it with a bushel. That power is Popery. And that 
which thus buries, and hides from the world the lamp of eternal 
truth itself, must be Antichrist ! 



16 

For at least two centuries after the close of the apostolic age, 
it is an undeniable fact, that the Scriptures were in the hands of 
all who had the means to procure them. They were publicly- 
read in the religious assemblies of the people, and formed in the 
family, the text book of instruction. As, however, the Papacy 
rose into power, the Bible disappeared, until at last it became 
a sealed book, hidden in the cloisters and libraries, and of whose 
character multitudes even of the dignified clergy were entirely 
ignorant. 

For many centuries before the Reformation, the Church of 
Rome gave httle or no instruction from the Scriptures to the 
multitudes of her people. The public services of her religion 
were performed principally in an unknown language, and con- 
sisted, to a very great degree, in imposing ceremonies silently 
addressed to the outward senses. The rule of faith and manners 
was the will of the priesthood. After the invention of printing, 
devout and courageous men were fomid in various nations, who 
attempted the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular 
tongues, that all might read them ; but they were always opposed 
by the Romanists, who, when they had the power, burned both 
the books themselves, and the men who made them. 

If the Roman Catholic Church in any nation, has ever al- 
lowed the translation of the Scriptures into the language under- 
stood by the people, as she has done in a few instances, it is 
because it was demanded by the force of a public opinion, which . 
for the time being she felt to be too powerful to be resisted. And 
that public opinion was created by Protestant influence. Her 
translations are corrupt and defective. She has encumbered 
them with notes and comments, which form the authorized ex- 



I 



17 

position of the text, and after all, they are only to be read by 
the express permission of the priesthood.* 

Examine the condition of those countries of the globe where 
Popery has the ascendency, and it ^vill be found that they are 
almost Uterally without the word of God, except so far as they 
have received it from Protestant hands, and in spite of the papal 
prohibitions. , 

Luther, though he had been carefully instructed by his parents 
in the faith of Rome, and though he had been a student of the 
Academy and University for years, had never seen the Bible 
until he happened upon it one day in the library of Erfurth. He 
was then twenty years of age, and from the period that his 
hands took down the sacred volume from the shelves we may 
date the commencement of the Reformation in Germany. He 
took it down, not to return it unconsidered, but to feed his own 
faith upon its discoveries, and then give it to the world. It w^as 
the grand instrument of his Reformation. As an illustration of 
the gross ignorance which prevailed among the Romish clergy 
in Scotland, when the Reformation began to extend itself to that 
country, Buchanan informs us that severe laws were enacted 
against the reading of the New Testament, and that such was 
the blindness of the priests, that many of them maintained that 
it was a " dangerous book, lately written by Martin Luther ! " 

The characteristic principle of Protestantism with regard to 
the Scriptures and in opposition to all anti-christian substi- 
tutes is, that they are free to all men : as free as the atmosphere 

* See Decrees of Council of Trent, rule 4th, concerning prohibited books. 



18 

or the light of heaven, of which each individual may appropriate 
his share, without injury to others. 

Regarding every man as a rational and accountable being, 
standing on the ground of his own personal responsibility, 
Protestantism puts the Scriptures into his hands, that he may read 
and study them in his retirement, and deduce from them his own 
faith and stimulus to personal duty. 

Considering men as social. Protestantism places the Bible on 
the family table, at its first organization, and says to its members, 
here is the precious volume that teaches the way to domestic 
happiness. 

To the Church of God she presents it, as the grand charter of 
her security, the rule of her faith, the text-book of her instruction, 
the ultimate judge in her controversies, and the light which 
shows her members the way to a blessed immortality. 

Nor is consistent Protestantism satisfied with limiting the 
teachings of the Bible to matters purely religious only, but she 
carries it to the school, the counting-room, the halls of legisla- 
tion, the tribunal of justice, and the table of the statesman and 
politician, saying here is the rule of your duty : the only safe 
and adequate guide to personal and social prosperity. 

God gave the Bible to man as a universal rule of faith and 
manners — he, in his folly and presumption, has more than once 
made the experiment of dispensing with its instructions, and the 
result is before the world. Popery made it on a grand and 
mighty scale ; and the consequence was, that intellectual and 
moral darkness covered the nations, a cruel and inexorable 
despotism enslaved and degraded man, vice and immorality most 
fearfully prevailed, and imposture, fanaticism and selfish formality. 



19 

were substituted almost universally for the religion of the Son of 
God. 

Modern France, throwing away the religion which had itself 
thrown away the Bible, made the same experiment, under the 
less covert form of open infidelity, and the result is written with 
letters of blood on the pages of her revolutionary history. 

Let our own country beware how she tries a similar experi- 
ment, by allowing either Popery or infidelity to carry her off the 
only ground on which a republic can stand : the broad and safe 
ground of Bible morality. 

III. A third fundamental principle of Protestantism is, that 
all men have a right to personal and political freedom, while 
exercising their religion, and submitting to the restraints of 
righteous law. 

Man, even in his fallen condition, is disposed to reHgion. He 
feels that there is a God, and that he must do something to pro- 
pitiate his favor. Satan, " the god of this world," saw that man 
must have a rehgion, and he gave him Paganism. When 
Paganism was overthrown in the Roman Empire by the power 
of Christianity, and the sagacious adversary saw that the true 
religion was in danger of triumphing, to the destruction of his 
own kingdom, he invented the papal corruptions, and imposed 
them on the world as the rehgion of the Son of God. Hence 
Paganism and Popery have always been among the main 
institutions of Satan's kingdom on our earth. Where Paganism 
prevails, ci\il liberty is a stranger; and wherever Popery has the 
ascendency, man is a slave. ^ 

To control a man's religion, is to control his entire person ; 



20 

and it was the grand masterpiece of Popery to take hold of man's 
rehgious susceptibihties, and forge them into an iron chain, 
which would fetter him to the foot of its own despotic throne. 

Popery, as we have already seen, usurps the government of the 
nations, that grand prerogative of the " only mediator." And 
hence it is a civil tyranny, prostituting religion to keep men 
indefinitely in political bondage. Look at the state of the world 
before the light of Protestantism began to break over its inhabit- 
ants, and the spectacle presents itself, of Princes, Kings and 
Emperors, bowing in subserviency to Rome ; while the milhons 
of their ignorant and degraded subjects w^ere utter strangers to 
personal and political freedom. 

God's great ordinance of civil government, designed by its 
author to promote his own glory, in the preservation of the peace 
and order of society, was absorbed in the compound despotism 
of the papacy. And the individual will of a single man, often 
ignorant, profligate, and impious in the extreme, was the rule of 
universal obedience. 

We know that from age to age resistance was made, in various 
parts of the earth, to this inexorable usurpation. But it is also 
matter of history that such resistance was always met by the 
whole power of Rome. She drew the sword, and many tens 
of thousands were slain for evincing that they even wished to be 
free. 

We cannot forget that it was the church of Rome which 
slaughtered the Waldenses, and Albigenses, and other Christians, 
before the Reformation, and the Huguenots of France, and Scot- 
tish and Irish Protestants, since that era of liberty. Inspired 
prophecy describes her, as the " woman drunken with the blood 



21 4 

of the saints," and the history of her cruelties is on record, both 
on earth and in Heaven. 

" And I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain 
for the word of God, and the testimony which they held. And 
they cried with a loud voice saying, how long, oh Lord, holy 
and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that 
dwell on the earth." — Rev. vi., 9, 10. Civil and religious lib- 
erty are twin sisters, and Christianity is the mother of both. 
Protestantism has released them together from the chains of 
Rome, and to it the world is indebted for all the ci\TLl and reli- 
gious freedom it now enjoys. Just in proportion as the govern- 
ments of the nations are imbued with the spbrit of Protestantism 
they are free and prosperous. Compare Spain and Great Britain, 
Mexico and our own United States generally, and the lower 
department of Canada with New England, and it is Protestant- 
ism that makes them differ. And whence have come the liberty 
of conscience, of speech, and of the press ; the written consti- 
tutions of civil government, which define the rights of the 
citizen, and the power of the ruler ; the wholesome laws which 
give encouragement to industry ; and all the other immunities of 
freemen by w^hich our own country is distinguished ? From 
Protestantism. 

It was well and truly said by a venerable statesman,* on a 
recent occasion, " that it was a most propitious circumstance, that 
all the first settlers of the United States should have come from 
Protestant countries." And we have ourselves heard another 



* Hon. Albert Gallatin, in his address to the New York Historical Society, 
1843. 



22 

distinguished civilian* of our own State, in a public address, 
trace the origin of the declaration of American independence to 
the National Covenant of Scotland. Nor was it a mere flight 
of fancy. The Scottish Reformers from Popery had drunk deep 
at the fountains of Protestantism, as they had been opened on 
the continent of Europe, and especially in republican Geneva ; 
or, rather, they had drunk alorTg with the continental Reformers, 
at the same open fountain of God's word. They succeeded the 
Reformers of the continent in the movement against Antichrist, 
and had all the advantage of their lights. Their covenants were 
bonds of union among themselves, and public declarations of 
the grounds of their opposition to the anti-christian system, in 
all its parts. And they were distinguished, first, as connecting 
civil and religious liberty together in the definitions of rights 
■which they made — and second, in combining all classes of the 
community in the effort to secure them. 

As first formed, and afterwards renewed at various crises, of 
their history, the National Covenant of Scotland was a de- 
claration of the independence of the Church of Christ, as a dis- 
tinct community from the State ; and of both Church and State 
from all foreign control. It was subscribed by the mass of the 
people, as well as the privileged orders. And as ultimately 
embodied with additions, in the Solemn League and Covenant, 
it became the constitution of the British Empire. Under it, the 
Presbyterians of Scotland and the North of Ireland, the Puritans 
of England, of whom the majority were Presbyterians, and all 

* Hon. Gulian C. Verplanck. 



23 

other Protestants who chose to receive it, united together in the 
strife for hberty, which had ah'eady commenced. 

Charles the First is dethroned and executed. Despotism is 
rebuked, and great principles of civil and religious liberty are 
estabhshed ; while by this revolution a Protestant population, 
filled with the spirit of hberty, is scattered over the wilds of 
America. They increase and prosper, in the providence of God. 
They declare their independence of all foreign control, and take 
their place among the nations of the earth, as our own great 
Confederated Republic. During the excesses of the Common- 
wealth of England, which led to the temporary restoration of the 
house of Stuart, the Solemn League and Covenant was cast 
aside. But in the maintenance of its principles, Cameron, and 
Renwick, and a host of other holy martyrs, shed their blood, 
among the hills and glens, and upon the scaffolds of Scotland. 
Their legitimate successors, the " Old Dissenters," still hold it up 
before the world, and will not permit it to be forgotten. 

Should the witnesses for God, who inhabit the British Isles, 
be called to a struggle with Antichrist, before his final downfall 
— as we beheve they will — perhaps the banner of the Covenant 
will again float in the air, and form the rallying point of their 
efforts. 

The history of Presbyterianism is yet to be written. When it 
is given to the world by a competent hand, it w^ill be found to be 
the history of rational liberty. 

The Puritans of England, the Scottish, and Irish, and Dutch 
Presbyterians, and the Huguenots of France, were the principal 
planters of these United States. Protestants laid the foundations 
of our Republic. Let them protect the superstructure it now so glo- 



24 

riously sustains. And let them remember, that if there is any- 
thing which is wrong, in constitutions or administrations (and 
doubtless there is much), the true Protestant is always a 
reformer. 

IV. The fourth grand principle of Protestantism is, that a 
personal, spiritual religion is essential to the present well-being 
and eternal salvation of man. 

The three former principles might all be admitted, and yet 
men remain infidels. They may believe in their right to reform, 
and yet attempt no reformation of their own bad hearts. They 
may claim the right of personal and political freedom, and yet 
remain strangers to that " liberty wherewith Christ makes his 
people free." They may admit that the Bible is the sufficient 
and only rule of faith and manners, and yet go to perdition with 
it in their hands ! He, then, is not a true Protestant who is not 
sensible of the necessity of personal sanctification by the blood 
and Spirit of Jesus Christ. And the highest charge which we 
are compelled to bring against the Roman Catholic system, is 
its impiety. 

" Beheve in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved," 
is the grand announcement of the gospel. The faith demanded 
is a receiving and resting upon Christ alone for salvation. And 
it is a personal exercise of the mind. Christianity first individu- 
alizes the human being, and then tells him that his salvation 
depends, not on the intentions or acts of others, be they who 
they may, but on his own personal appropriation of Jesus 
Christ as the Saviour. And it tells him further, that this faith 
which he must personally exercise, and with which God has 



25 

been pleased to connect the salvation of the soul, is spiritual. 
Not the mere assent of the mind to the dogmas of a human creed, 
nor the yielding of its will to the direction of a human teacher, 
nor the submission of itself to a round of formal observances — but 
a loving, serving, and trusting God in Jesus Christ, through the 
aid of the sanctifying Spirit, for the forgiveness of sins, and a 
title to the celestial glory. 

There are, indeed, forms in religion ; for man has a body, 
through the medium of whose senses the soul is addressed. But 
attention to the mere forms of godliness can no more save the 
soul, than the going with the pitcher to the fountain can quench 
the thirst, while the water is neither drawn nor tasted. 

Popery has corrupted the doctrine of the gospel. She has 
imposed on man a system of rites and ceremonies unknow^n to 
the Bible. She has given a saving efficacy to her forms, when 
employed by her priesthood with a right intention. And thus 
she has made the pardon of sin and enjoyment of heaven, commo- 
dities capable of being bought and sold by the sinful creature. 

Therefore, the uniform tendency of the anti-christian system 
has been to make men either infidels or mere formalists, blindly 
devoting themselves to the observance of the appointed ceremo- 
nies, that in so doing they may secure heaven as their reward. 
Infidelity and gross superstition always have been, and always 
will be companions. " This fiction of Jesus Christ," said one of 
the Popes of Rome ; " this fiction ; how much we make by it !" 

Let us look over the Roman world, at the period when the 
Reformation commenced, and it will be seen that covert infidelity 
or gross superstition prevailed almost universally. Many of the 



26 

priesthood, from the Pope to the lowest of his begging friars, 
were utterly irreligious men, who used their office and influence 
for mere selfish and worldly purposes. The kings and nobles 
employed the religion to whose support they contributed, as an 
engine of state policy, to perpetuate their despotism ; and the 
mass of the people were the ignorant devotees of a cunningly 
devised and soul-destroying formalism. Spiritual religion — 
christian. faith, had almost left the world. 

As in times of olS, there were indeed seven thousand in Israel 
who had not bowed the knee to Baal. But like the spark of fire 
amidst the ashes, to which allusion has been already made, they 
were uninfluential and almost unknown. God the Holy Spirit 
stirred the ashes, for the time was come, and there w^as revival, 
light, and heat. 

The Protestant Reformation, and this is its glory, was a 
revival of spiritual religion in the earth. 

It has been attempted to be shown, that it was a mere 
pohtical movement, made by the civiHans of conflicting states 
against each other, and the overgrown, absorbing tyranny of 
Rome ; or one of those changes that natural causes alone may 
produce, in an advancing state of society. But this is to look at 
it with the eye of worldly reason only, and not of Christian 
faith. God did employ the kings, and nobles, and scholars to 
advance the cause, but it was as he overruled the projects of a 
Cyrus, or Nebuchadnezzer of old, to deliver Zion from her 
captivity, and re-establish the worshijf of his own house at Jeru- 
salem. The hand of Him who is " Head over all things to the 
church, which is his body," gave direction to the conflicting 
elements, and " made the wrath of man to praise him." 



27 

The Protestant Reformation began in the hearts of men. 
There were many of God's elect on the earth during that genera- 
tion. The Holy Spirit regenerated, sanctified, and brought them 
out from their retirements to the pubhc theatre, to do great things 
for the glory of the Godhead. 

Zuingle, Luther, Calvin and Knox, and thousands of others 
whom that age produced, were, like Barnabas of old, " good men, 
and full of the Holy Ghost." They drank deep at the fountain of 
God's most holy word ; they enjoyed a double portion of his 
Spu'it ; they loved prayer, and found in it their strength and 
consolation ; they conversed with their Maker asH man converses 
with his friend, and they gave themselves without reserve to 
the promotion of His cause. Preaching the doctrine of justifica- 
tion by the righteousness of Christ, and exemplifying in their 
practice the truths they proclaimed, God the Redeemer made 
them his instruments for reviving the true religion in the earth. 
" The word of God had free course among the nations, and was 
glorified." Antichrist received a wound from which he has 
never yet recovered ; and the pure light of gospel truth, under 
whose radiance we are now sitting, burst forth upon the world. 
The necessity of a personal, spiritual religion, to bless and save 
man, was fully and successfully demonstrated. 

What, then, is Protestantism ? It is Christianity, stripped of 
the corruptions of the Papacy, and coming to man to give him 
the Bible, and his liberty. The true religion, delivered from the 
dungeon where Rome had bound and hidden her, and again 
introduced to men, that they may be reformed and saved. 

Popery is but a novelty, not yet twelve hundred and sixty 
years of age. But Protestantism is as old as the first promise in 



28 

which the gospel of Jesus Christ was preached to fallen 
man. 

We now proceed to inquire, what is our present duty, as 
Protestants, to our rehgion, our country, and the world ? It is, 

1. To continue our 'protest, with firmness and decision, 
against the Roman Catholic system. 

The ancient enemy is still in the field, with all his former 
craft and industry, if not with his former power, and his aim is 
nothing short of a recovery of his lost dominion. 

It is the opinion of many of our best expositors of Scripture 
prophecy, that Popery will recover a temporary ascendency 
over the entire seat of its former triumph, before its final destruc- 
tion ; and the sentiment is every day gaining ground throughout 
Protestant Europe. That it is aiming at this, can hardly be 
matter of doubt. Within a few years, there has been a remark- 
able revival of the energies of the Romanists, scattered among 
various nations ; and means have been used to promote a corre-r 
spondence among them, and concert of action in carrying out 
the schemes devised at Rome. In the year 1822, the " Society 
for propagating the faith " was organized in Austria, with the 
express design of counteracting Protestant missions, and check- 
ing the progress of Protestant principles. In the year 1841, its 
revenue was more than half a million of dollars, and it has an- 
nounced its intention to carry it to more than two millions 
annually. With these, and similar means gathered from other 
quarters, and by other societies, the Papacy has diffused its princi- 
ples over much of Europe, Asia, Africa, and our own country. 
Into these lands it has sent its hundreds of Jesuit priests, with 



29 

its journals and tracts. It has established schools, colleges, and 
nunneries, and received in doing all this, the unequivocal counte- 
nance of several of the European governments. We see Algiers 
subdued by the arms of France, and soon a Bishop is sent there 
to establish the Popish religion. The Sandwich Islands receive 
the gospel from Protestant missionaries, and Romish priests are 
forced upon them at the mouth of French cannon. And no 
sooner is China opened to Christian civilisation, in the overruling 
providence of God, than the Pope prepares to send his Jesuits 
among its inhabitants. 

In France, Austria, Belgium, and several of the cantons of 
Switzerland, Popery is greatly on the advance, while the rapid 
increase of its influence in the British Empire is becoming mat- 
ter of profound alarm. A recent writer in England,* himself a 
member of its estabhshed church, thus declares his sentiments on 
this subject. " Hence the rapid spread of Papal principles 
through our own country, once above all others distinguished 
for its righteous abhorrence of the apostacy. We must not con- 
ceal from ourselves the fact, that even zealous Protestant minis- 
ters have become priests of the apostacy ; that our own govern- 
ment supports in its colonies the priesthood of the mother of 
abominations ; that our system of national education in Ireland 
is based on a union of effort w^ith the popish priest ; that Jesuit 
priests 'and missionaries, papist churches, seminaries, nunneries, 
magazines and tracts, are multiplying ; and that the college of 
Maynooth, with all its proved evil system of instruction, receives 
its yearly thousands from the government. Nor is this, alas ! 

* Rev. E. Bickersteth, reviewed by London Christian Observer, Feb., 1843. 



30 

all. There is a corresponding movement even within our own 
Protestant Church, in all points in the dangerous direction of 
Romanism." 

All this shows that Rome is awake, and that she is determined 
to put forth a mighty effort to regain the mastery of the world. 
And there is every reason to fear that she will be successful. If, 
however, in her final struggle, she should slay the witnesses, as 
predicted in the eleventh chapter of the Revelations, revolu- 
tionize the kingdoms of Europe, and resume her despotic sway 
over the entire surface of the ancient Roman empire, it will be 
only for a little season. Her speedy downfall will give rest to 
the Church. 

But to come nearer home. It is a question of moment, and 
we rejoice that it is agitated, — what is the specific danger to our 
own Republic from the efforts of the Papacy ? Shall Rome in any 
contingency obtain 'political ascendency here ? She cannot, with- 
out an entire revolution in our government. Is she able to effect 
this ? That she is attempting it we cannot doubt. 

Already we have a million and a half of Papists in the United 
States, with nearly six hundred officiating priests, and the num- 
ber is daily increasing. They have an ample supply of money 
from the foreign treasuries, and they act together as one man. 
The sympathies of the foreign Romanists are strongly with them ; 
they have the countenance of the old European despots, who hate 

our free republic, and would fain take away its liberty; and the 
Pope is the common head and centre of union to the entire body. 
That Popery is essentially the same thing here, as elsewhere, 
and as it has always been, we have a right to assume, at least 
until the Romanists of this country declare the contrary, by some 



31 

authoritative act. But they have never so declared. Their boast 
is, that their system is " semper et ubique eadem," always and 
everywhere the same. If it be changed, let us see the evidence. 
If there be improvement, we shall rejoice, for against that we 
are not contending. 

Here, too, the Romanists enjoy the same civil and pohtical 
rights w^hich are accorded to other American citizens, and they 
may wield the power of numbers, so far as they possess it, even 
now, to accomplish any object, not palpably of a revolutionary 
character. On the fan- lands of our Confederacy, Rome has set 
her eye, with the determination to secure them as her own. 
We believe she will be disappointed. And, without referring 
to other considerations, we rest the opinion on the word of God 
itself As we understand the predictions of Scripture referring 
to this subject, they represent the temporal power of the Papacy 
as confined within specific boundaries. The mystical Babylon 
has its streets and walls, and where, and what they are, may be 
known by adverting to the condition of the nations, when the 
" whole world wondered after the Beast." They are commen- 
surate with the old Roman empire.* And if the power of the 
Pope, as a temporal prince, is extended elsewhere, it is in the 
same way that the home government of a country extends its 
authority over its subjects in foreign lands. 

We are aware that in the southern portion of our own conti- 
tent, Rome, in several places, has great influence. But there, 
revolution succeeds revolution, from year to year, and the poli- 

* Rev. xi. 3-8, xiv. 8-20, xvi. 1-19, et cetera. 



S2 

tical government is perpetually changing. Had the Pope political 
power, there would be no change. An immutable despotism 
would prevail. God overrules the changes to prevent Anti- 
christ from settling himself on this continent, as a permanent 
temporal prince. Out of the territory of the " Roman latin 
earth," the papacy cannot, we believe, have any permanent 
pohtical ascendency. Our own country forms no part of the 
ancient Roman empire. Here the streets of the mystical Baby- 
lon do not extend. She has never given her power to the 
Beast, as is said of the kings of " the earth." The Declara- 
tion of Independence dissolved whatever connection she may 
have had with the anti-christian world, as colonies of England. 
And the established pohcy of her government, under all admin- 
istrations, is non-interference with European politics, and the 
permission of no interference with her own. " America," (says 
Dr. M'Leod, in his tenth lecture on the prophecies), " has not 
been guilty of shedding the blood of the martyrs. She has 
not persecuted the w^andering and benighted sons of Abraham, 
still beloved for the Father's sake, and again to be brought back 
to the knowledge of the truth. She has not, either by sea or by 
land, encouraged oppression, or despoiled of his goods, him that 
was at peace with her. This hitherto happy land has been a 
place of refuge from the storm which desolates the old world. 
Long may it retain its character ! Let its door of hospitality be 
open for the reception of the stranger, who sighs for a participa- 
tion in the blessings of liberty enjoyed by the sons of Columbia ! 
And let the republican banner cover as a mantle, and continue 
to protect its adopted citizen against the unholy claims, and un- 



33^ 

blessed pretensions of perpetual allegiance to despotic power ! " 
Here, then, it is our conviction, that Antichrist shall not 
reign. The period of twelve hundred and sixty years to which 
his dominion has been hmited, draws towards its close. And 
when the mystical Babylon falls, it is not to be rebuilt in some 
other portion of the globe, but to rise no more for ever. 

And suppose we are mistaken as to the import of prophecy. 
Before Popery can triumph here, its votaries must multiply by 
millions. They must obtain a numerical majority at the polls. 
They must succeed in extinguishing the lights of liberty, and of 
the true religion in the tens of thousands of hearts in which they 
now burn and shine. And they must drive into infidelity, or 
utter superstition, the daily increasing millions which compose 
the Protestant Churches, all united in their opposition to Rome. 

And is the world to lose its memory of what Popery is, and 
has done to oppress and destroy 1 No ! we may become a nation 
of infidels, if God do not in mercy prevent ; but a colony of 
Rome ! No, never ! ! There is not time for such radical changes 
as all this supposes, amidst the lights of the 19th century, before 
the days of Rome sljall be numbered. 

And let it be remembered, that the revolutions which we be- 
lieve are to take place in the old world where Popery will triumph 
for a season, are for the pm-pose of preparing the way for the 
ext^sion of the gospel over all the earth. The breaking down 
of the old and tottering fabrics of Mohammedan and papal 
tyranny, is to be immediately followed by the building up of the 
millennial city. Supposing then, that Popery in its final struggle 
should be able to revolutionize our government into a papal 



34 

despotism, it would only be that it might be speedily revolution- 
ized back again into a more thoroughly christianized republic. 
We had rather say, that being radically right in its foundation, 
God will reform, sustain, and save it. 

Are we, then, in no danger from Popery ? Undoubtedly we 
are, and we should not be insensible to it. It will in all proba- 
bility be employed, as a rod in the hand of God, to chastise this 
nation for its sins. We are already finding it a great disturbing 
force in the Commonwealth, agitating perpetually, and jeopard- 
ing its prosperity. 

We are in danger from popery, first, because it will interfere 
with, and attempt to destroy our established systems of education. 
These generally embrace the Scriptures, in some form or other, 
and have done so since the first settlement of the country, unless 
where a popish or infidel influence had prevailed. Take away 
the principles of Bible morality from a system of education, and 
the education will be infidel. Popery hates and opposes the 
Bible, and will seek, as she has already done, to banish it from 
the common schools. To do this is to strike at the foundations 
of our government. No community is capable of self-govern- 
ment whose individual members are not themselves governed 
by the morals of the Bible. Nor is this all. Increasing in their 
demands for change in the system of education, the Romish prelates 
of New York, Pennsylvania, and New England, feel themselves 
sufficiently strong to require that all references unfavorable to 
Popery be banished from the histories and other books of in- 
struction. The history of Popery is the history of the world for 
many ages. And here the design is apparent. They would 
wish to bring up the coming generation in ignorance of the 



35 

misdeeds of Rome. But the attempt will be abortive. In some 
way or other, the memory of the w^orld's oppressor for centuries 
must be perpetuated. Americans must not forget the reasons 
and influences of the Protestant Reformation. Popery, too, 
opposes our system of common school instruction, because its 
tendency is to break down all sectional and foreign feehng, and 
amalgamate all into one mass, as American citizens. She loves 
the special privileges of despotism, and therefore opposes the 
common school. Contact with Protestants is unfavorable to 
Romanism. 

A second danger to our country from popish influence, is its. 
tendency to promote corruption in the exercise of the elective 
franchise. Aheady Romanists are sufficiently numerous in some 
parts of the Union, to hold the balance of power between politi- 
cal parties. This is an encouragement to unprincipled politicians 
to court their favor, and offer them inducements to join their 
ranks, while it furnishes occasion to them to demand special 
favors for themselves. Here, then, is a grand corrupting 
influence, cutting deep into the vitals of our political system. 

But third, and this is the grand evil which we find ourselves 
compelled to charge on the papal system : — Its efforts will be 
employed to counteract the influence of the Church in giving 
pure rehgion to the people. It should be the aim of the Church, 
as she would desire to save the Republic, to bring the mass of 
the people under the influence of the gospel ; to sanctify the 
public mind and heart, and, looking to the eternal world, give 
all her energies to the work of bringing sinners to Jesus Christ. 
In this she may expect to find Popery a grand opponent. And 
thus Popery may ruin many immortal souls, by persuading them 



36 

to receive her wretched formalism, instead of the Hving spiritual- 
ities of the gospel of the Son of God. 

Here, then, is ample reason for continuing a firm and intelhgent 
protest against her. 

Let her errors and superstitions he exposed, in the spirit of 
Christian candor and love ; let the Bible be circulated among 
her votaries ; let her children be taken by the hand, and brought 
to the sabbath school and Church of God ; let her votaries be 
entreated, in the spirit of the Gospel, to come out of the mystical 
Babylon, and let the Church wrestle with the Mediatorial Angel 
in fervent and effectual prayer for the reformation of her deluded 
people ; in a word, let Protestants do their duty to themselves, 
their country, and their God, and Rome shall never have the 
Republic. 

But 2. And to conclude : The 'present duty of Protestants is 
to p7'osecute reform wherever it is seen to he necessary. 

The grand difference between our civil institutions and those 
of the old world generally is, that ours are founded in right, and 
that their evils are rather incidental than constitutional and 
necessary, while the opposite is the case with governments 
abroad. What is radically right, though imperfect, and liable 
to abuse, may be reformed and saved, in the use of the proper 
means. It behooves all who love their country, to know its 
evils, and seek their removal. That great and growing evils do 
exist in our social system is undoubtedly true. Thus, if we look 
in one direction, we behold the system of slavery, that grand 
criminal inconsistency with all our professions as a free people. 
This is the sin and shame of our country, and must be removed, 
if God designs our institutions for permanency. 



37 

And again, we see a rancorous party spirit, in the manage- 
ment of politics, which sacrifices everything at the shrine of 
its own selfishness, and tramples moral principles to the earth. 

Another evil is the spirit of insubordination which is felt in 
all departments of society, and threatens the destruction of all 
authority. 

And another is the increasing disposition to think lightly 
of crime. Hence the disregard of the obhgation of contracts; 
the connivance at fraud in individuals and communities ; the 
extreme diflniculty of bringing the transgressors of law to punish- 
ment, and the frequent and unjustifiable exercise of the pardoning 
power, under the influence of a wrongly-directed sympathy. But 
without attempting a further enumeration of existing evils we 
may sum up all in one — disregard for the law of God. Here is 
the grand source of our danger. Our tendencies, as a people, 
are to a profligate infidelity. Respect for the Bible is the pal- 
ladium of our liberties. On no other foundation can our Re- 
public stand. The true Protestant is pledged to be a Reformer. 
And when we point to the evils that exist, we also put the rem- 
edy in the hand. It is found in the Bible — Jesus Christ is the 
Prince of the Kings of the earth, and his law the universal rule 
for individual and social man, in all his relations ; and there is 
no security for the individual, or the community, but in friend- 
ship with Him, through submission to his law. 

" Be wise now, therefore, oh ye kings, be instructed, ye judges 
of the earth ; Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trem- 
bling : Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and ye perish from the 
way, when his wrath is kindled but a little." — Psalm ii., 10-12. 
Our hope for our country, under God, is in his Church, — the 



38 

Protestant Church of our land, cathohc in her sympathies and 
claims, and one in her love to the pure word of God. She is 
the salt and the light to our constantly increasing population. 
Healing her own divisions, understanding her character, and 
combining her efforts against the common enemy, let her be true 
to herself, and our country is safe. 

Let Bible principles be taught in the schools of the Republic ; 
let them be reverenced in her halls of legislation; let them 
actuate her public servants in the judicial and executive de- 
partments of her government ,• let her pulpits continue to pro- 
claim, and wdth increased efficiency, the glorious truths of the 
gospel of Christ — in a word, let the mass of the population 
be true to their Protestant origin, and she will stand upon a rock 
which cannot be moved, when the storm of revolution shall 
sweep the mystical Babylon from the earth, and those mighty 
despotisms of another continent which now support her, shall 
crumble into ruin. Antichrist shall ere long fall, and Protestant- 
ism, which is Christianity, pervade and bless the world. "And 
the seventh angel sounded, and there were great voices in 
heaven saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the king- 
dom of our Lord and of his Christ." — Revelations xi., 15. 



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